TB - I can use it across all platforms, as I keep a central data partition. That way I dont have to decide.

Anyone who is using M$ anything is looking for trouble.

BR>Jack

Best thing I've used is The Bat! (I have home edition). Takes a bit of getting used to and a bit of effort to set up exactly how you want it, but it is by far the most flexible email client I've used.

My progression has been Outlook => Thunderbird => The Bat! I think Microsoft should be embarrassed about how slow and bloated Outlook 2007 is.

Best thing I've used is The Bat! (I have home edition). Takes a bit of getting used to and a bit of effort to set up exactly how you want it, but it is by far the most flexible email client I've used.

My progression has been Outlook => Thunderbird => The Bat! I think Microsoft should be embarrassed about how slow and bloated Outlook 2007 is.

Well, I used the BAT! myself when I managed my email with POP.

I'd like to remark this -

none of the existing email clients can beat Thunderbird (at this time) if you manage you mail with IMAP protocol.

Except a little program which is still available but as open source - Mulberry - the GUI is awful and outdated.

Best thing I've used is The Bat! (I have home edition). Takes a bit of getting used to and a bit of effort to set up exactly how you want it, but it is by far the most flexible email client I've used.

My progression has been Outlook => Thunderbird => The Bat! I think Microsoft should be embarrassed about how slow and bloated Outlook 2007 is.

Well, I used the BAT! myself when I managed my email with POP.

I'd like to remark this -

none of the existing email clients can beat Thunderbird (at this time) if you manage you mail with IMAP protocol.

Except a little program which is still available but as open source - Mulberry - the GUI is awful and outdated.

Can someone enlighten me as to why Bat is better than Thunderbird? (What does it have that TB doesn't?)

Since Tywais kindly showed me how to use Thunderbird, I find it brilliant for my purposes.

Just installed Thunderbird and works well with Gmail. However did not get it to work with hotmail. Followed settings from hotmail web help. Anyone managed to get it working ?

Yes - full instructions here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Windows-Live...t&p=2138722

I have many Hotmail accounts and got them all working with Thunderbird. Once the accounts were set up, the "Send and Receive" (?) function of Thunderbird collected all my mail from all my Hotmail and Gmail accounts.

I am still using Outlook Express (OE), however, as it is what I'm used to and prefer.

Thanks, this did the trick. Easy set up for both Hotmail and Gmail. However how this handles the messages between the server and mozilla ?

Now it seems that if i send mail from Thunderbird there is copy of that message saved in sent items when i check via web mail. But if i delete the message from Thunderbird sent items it still remains in server ?

Also it seems it does not sync previously sent messages ?

Best thing I've used is The Bat! (I have home edition). Takes a bit of getting used to and a bit of effort to set up exactly how you want it, but it is by far the most flexible email client I've used.

My progression has been Outlook => Thunderbird => The Bat! I think Microsoft should be embarrassed about how slow and bloated Outlook 2007 is.

Well, I used the BAT! myself when I managed my email with POP.

I'd like to remark this -

none of the existing email clients can beat Thunderbird (at this time) if you manage you mail with IMAP protocol.

Except a little program which is still available but as open source - Mulberry - the GUI is awful and outdated.

I have never seen a GOOD email client. I like Mail.app - it's certainly unrivaled for its search function (OK except GMail webmail). But it has many annoyances, chief amongst them that iMap is insanely slow, or rather, gets insanely slow over time, and memory leaks and stuttering when it can't reach a server. This one's built into OSX so you Windows users are outta luck.

It's funny that you mention Mulberry. Mulberry has a totally ridiculous UI, to the point where it's pretty much unusable. If you had a bunch of monkeys randomly assembling buttons and windows, it would look kinda like Mulberry. But... Mulberry has ridiculously fast iMap access. It seems to have absolutely no problem with iMap - it will sync 10s of thousands of messages in seconds. I just wish Mail.app had the iMap module from this program.

Thunderbird, I used to use but it's just too crappy overall. The search function is from 1999. Though now that Eudora is helping it might be good again, even though Eudora itself has gotten pretty old too.

The best email client IMO is Gmail - give me a desktop version of that, and I am happy. It may not be as pretty as Mail.app but in terms of usability I find it fantastic. Tags work and are fast, search works and is fast (and not from 1999), the threads implementation works very well, unlike the desktop apps where that feature is present but not very useful. Archive + Inbox + tags is the best way to organize mail.

I have tried Outlook occasionally but either I don't get it, or it's really so bad, and I think it's the latter...

The advantages of The Bat! are too numerous for me to explain really. So I'll just say:

* You can set it up pretty much any way you want.

* Its fast (totally unlike Outlook 2007, which gives my computer a seizure).

There's a free trial. Download and have a look at it. If you like it, great, if not, there's nothing wrong with Thunderbird.

OK, so I have Windows Live running on my desk top, and Thunderbird on my laptop.

the problem is that my gmail emails are either downloaded on Windows live or Thunderbird - not to both. Not sure which one takes precedence if both are running at the same time.

But my Hotmail emails are delivered to both mail servers, but then something weird happens. After I open the hotmail email in Thunderbird, the email on Windows live disappears to the "deleted" folder.

Not a major problem, but inconvenient.

It seems pretty clear I can't run both systems.

If I have Windows Live running on all my machines, then I get the same emails delivered to all machines.

Not sure if this would happen if I had Thunderbird running on all my machines. Anyone happen to know?

the problem is that my gmail emails are either downloaded on Windows live or Thunderbird - not to both. Not sure which one takes precedence if both are running at the same time.

Are you using IMAP for GMail configuration in both Thunderbird and Windows Live? I have used this same setup previously and was able to use both email clients on two separate machines and my mail stayed on the server and in sync on both machines.

Not sure if this would happen if I had Thunderbird running on all my machines. Anyone happen to know?

Make sure you have Thunderbird set to leave mail on server for those servers (Hotmail/Gmail) you want to access from more then one PC. It's under Tools > Account Settings > Server Settings. Some servers though, when one client reads it it marks it as read and a 2nd time will not download it because it thinks it has already read it. Not sure about Hotmail/Gmail and using IMAP under Thunderbird instead.

//edit - see that Rice_King answered the IMAP question.

Two other apps worth mentioning are Postbox and Spicebird. Postbox has a great conversation view but spicebird has a nice integrated calender.